^Cool! I hope they work for you. I assume you're looking for a "nice" spiral journal as opposed to, say, a Mead spiralbound notebook like you can get at Wal-Mart for 17 cents during school supply sales. Because those come in narrower college-ruled versions all the time. There are also some brands of nice bound journals that are stitched such that they lay flat(ter)--might take some experimenting to find one that works just right, though. If they don't lay flat for me I just crack 'em... and that's why I can't have nice things.

My thing is the size. I like the smaller books for my journals, rather than a full size 8x11 notebook. I need to learn how to bind books

I also like the filled-out notebooks! The way they are slighty unflat, not really wrinkled. The way my handwriting is different beacause of my moods or level of emergency. The different writing implements used causing variations. Sometimes I just run my hand over the pages for the tactile experience.

I don't write, and the journaling I do is actually notes on the edges of my food diary. It is fun to go back to see the slow progression of weight loss and how well I stuck to my food plan and the meals out, and where I simply failed.

I also loved seeing the mass of notes I took for courses. The hours I spent in class, the differences in abbreviations I used and the handwriting are all interesting and fulfilling to me.

So I bought new notebooks today and a set of pens. And it's this thread's fault.

I also like the filled-out notebooks! The way they are slighty unflat, not really wrinkled. The way my handwriting is different beacause of my moods or level of emergency. The different writing implements used causing variations. Sometimes I just run my hand over the pages for the tactile experience.

I don't write, and the journaling I do is actually notes on the edges of my food diary. It is fun to go back to see the slow progression of weight loss and how well I stuck to my food plan and the meals out, and where I simply failed.

I also loved seeing the mass of notes I took for courses. The hours I spent in class, the differences in abbreviations I used and the handwriting are all interesting and fulfilling to me.

So I bought new notebooks today and a set of pens. And it's this thread's fault.

I blame this thread on some upcoming purchases I'm planning. Between European Paper, JetPens, and My Maido, I've picked out a few things I want and it's just a matter of seeing how badly my restraint fails when I actually sit down to buy something. European Paper appears to have the biggest selection of paper, but I've also noticed they seem to be the most expensive--they overlapped with JetPens on a couple items, and JetPens had them cheaper. But, where My Maido overlapped with JetPens, My Maido was cheaper, but they have the smallest selection overall. Oh trust me, I've made lists and diagrams and so forth already. For JetPens the strength seems to be the ability to buy single pens of lots of different types and colors. I might get 10 individual pens, each different, in my favorite color to see how I like them. I would stick to the cheaper pens so that would probably be roughly $20, is all.

JetPens is also good at bundles of paper. One single notebook might be $8.00, which seems a bit silly to me, but then you can buy a bundle of 10 of those notebooks (all the same color though) for $35.00, which more than halves the cost per notebook. So if you know you like something and want a lot of it (all in the same color though, you can tell this bothers me), that's a pretty good deal.

I really, really want the Clairefontaine 1951 B5 notebooks. I want one in every color. I want two in every color, and I want to stack them in the rainbow like they do on the websites. But, I will start with buying a pack of two in the same color from JetPens. Because you never know. My mom is as obsessed with yarn as I am with notebooks, and we browse yarn sites and drool over things together. There was a yarn that looked really good on the screen and came in many beautiful colors, and with great wisdom and restraint she decided to only buy one skein of it to get a better look. Turns out, it's too thin for her, even though the official "thickness number" looked good. So, just imagine the disappointment if she'd ordered the two dozen colors we wanted, and found it was too thin. So with that lesson in mind I am willing to start small, one notebook from each company I like to see if they are really what I want. And, just owning them is not necessarily the end, I really ought to write on them first before investing in more.

Take Black & Red, for example. They have this brand at office supply stores and they look pretty classy. Nice hard covers, spiral or bound. But the paper is a little... slick, is how I would describe it. My gels and roller balls smear more on it, and I don't tend to smear when I write. So after using one of their notebooks I'm going to give the others a pass.

I like the tactile sensation of feeling my written-in notebooks too. I think that's why I really prefer composing in a notebook as opposed to on the computer, even though it would be so much more practical to go straight to the computer. I like to flip through the pages, feel the indentation of the handwriting, look at where my handwriting got sloppy and think, "Oh yeah, I was trying to write in the car on the way to..." Sometimes I just go through and look at/feel the notebooks I have, even the ones I haven't used yet, and think, "I'm gonna get you soon!"

THere is no such thing as the wrong yarn. You just have to find a new project.

LOL! True. Well, in this case, with her arthritis, she has trouble working with the thinner yarn, because she likes to make the tightly-knit scarf patterns. So, it wouldn't have been right for her. I'm sure someone else would really love it... Now I can't remember the brand or the site where she got it, though.

The weirdest paper I've written on was this little notebook I got at a conference. They always give us a notebook to encourage us to pay attention and take notes, you know. This one was made of, I think, a combination of stone and recycled plastic. It was... not good. The paper had this weird, plastic-y slickness and it was slightly stretchy, too. The gels and roller balls really smeared on it because ink just couldn't soak into the paper very well. And, because it was stretchy, it sort of... warped as it was written in. It was almost hard to write on the back of a page because it was so deeply indented from the writing on the front. And it smelled weird, too.

Someone mentioned the elephant poo paper--I've seen that around. Usually those journals don't have lines, though, IME--they look like they're more for sketches or small scrapbooks or for people who can write without needing lines. I have one really nice notebook someone gave me as a gift, that was handmade in Nepal I think--the pages are super thick, no lines, beautiful multi-colored cover. I'm like, wow, this is so beautiful, and completely not anything I would actually use. I might give it away as a gift, if I can remember who gave it to me so I don't give it back to them...

I like the tactile sensation of feeling my written-in notebooks too. I think that's why I really prefer composing in a notebook as opposed to on the computer, even though it would be so much more practical to go straight to the computer. I like to flip through the pages, feel the indentation of the handwriting, look at where my handwriting got sloppy and think, "Oh yeah, I was trying to write in the car on the way to..." Sometimes I just go through and look at/feel the notebooks I have, even the ones I haven't used yet, and think, "I'm gonna get you soon!"

Yes! YES! YES! YES! YES!

Partner cannot figure this out because I'm pretty tech-savvy person and typically embrace new technology (not the first go-round, but by the third I'm on-board, like the first iPhone, nope, but I love my 4s), but when it's time for me to write, I pull out a spiral notebook and get to work. It's....better. I can't just go straight to computer. I need my notebooks.

There is a sensual aspect to writing on paper that you don't find when writing directly into a computer. The paper, the pen and the choreography of writing contribute to the article in a way that's hard to describe.

I know it sounds crazy but something written with a Bic in a marble composition book may feel like tap-dancing. Something written with a good pen in a Clairefontaine may feel like figure-skating.

The same goes for reading. I still have several books I bought in 1971 when I visited the Soviet Union. It may be the ink, it may be the paper or it may be the glue used in the binding but they all have a distinctive scent. The scent isn't offensive but it has colored my interpretation of Russian literature ever since. I can pick up an American edition of 'Anna Karenina' and smell it.

Yes, exactly! With a good pen and paper, where I don't really have to think about how well either is going work, it's almost like the story writes itself sometimes. I'm easy, I really love the Pilot G2 pens--I love how writing with them is almost, in my mind, like painting or doing calligraphy. I just like looking at the writing.

To me, the blank notebooks are not really about having something to be kept pristine--though I can certainly understand that feeling--for me it's more like, they're the vessels for stories waiting to be written. And that's really exciting for me.

Thanks to this thread, I'm getting some fancy notebooks for the holidays! My mom and I picked out some stuff from both European Paper and JetPens, and I found a couple of good deals on Amazon as well. I got one or two notebooks from several different brands which I'd never used before: Rhodia, Leuchtturm, Maruman, Clairefontaine, Kokuyo, Apica, Kyokuto. And a bunch of individual pens to try. Sorry, don't mean to brag! I never really knew about these brands and sites before this thread, and since my mom and I tend to be obsessive about stuff (you should see all the YARN I'm getting her for Christmas), we tend to go a little wild!

I love fancy journals and notebooks, but can not buy them. I won't use them: I never seem to have something special enough to write to warrant using such a special notebook. And once one is written in, it is never the same.

I do use a ton of basic note pads (letter-size, white, lined, attached at the top). Each project gets its own note pad. Currently I have 13 active note pads on my desk. When a project is done, I tear out the pages and either save them or recycle, and then the note pad goes back on the pile for another project.

My other favorite supply is those plastic envelope/folders with gussets that have a closure (velcro or string-and-button). With the gussets popped out, they fit a note pad plus hold all the random assorted bits of papers, business cards, CDs, and what-have-you that go with a project.

My other favorite supply is those plastic envelope/folders with gussets that have a closure (velcro or string-and-button). With the gussets popped out, they fit a note pad plus hold all the random assorted bits of papers, business cards, CDs, and what-have-you that go with a project.

You reminded me, I love folders like what you describe but with multiple pockets. I forget what they're called... accordion files, maybe? The biggest I've ever seen had, I think, 31 pockets (maybe 32), for people who need to file things by the day of the month. Usually they are more like 12 pockets or something. They are pretty expensive, though! I use them for organizing story ideas, or different bits of one large universe (stories here, story ideas there, general notes in this pocket, drawings in that pocket, etc.). I've only ever had the paper/cardboard ones, never the plastic--in the store the plastic ones always feel more flimsy to me, but since the paper ones I use get so beat up, maybe the plastic would actually be more durable over the long haul.

I thought I was weird that I could spend hours (literally) looking at all the pens/markers/pencils at Staples or Michaels or even the big warehouse electronics store. I love them! So hard to resist buying them all.

I like really fine ink-looking pens that don't sit on top of the paper, but also don't bleed through the paper. It's a really hard balance between the writing implement and the paper and hard to get right.

I love love love office supplies! Especially pens. I agree with the PP's who like the G2 Rollerball pens - those are great! Another random pen that I love is, strangely enough, the cheap pens that my workplace supplied. Basic Staples brand called OptiFlow and I just adore them. They don't dry out even if you leave the caps off, the ink flows easily, the barrels aren't so big that I can't get a grip on them...they're awesome. I practically hoarded them at work!

I love notebooks as well, but I buy and use notebooks far less than I do pens. I'm still searching for the right size and shape, I think.

This may sound weird, but one of my favorite things about writing vs using a computer is the different sounds that you get with different pens and paper. For example, if you're using a felt tip pen, it sometimes scratches a little bit against the page. And if you're using a Bic pen, it sometimes sticks to the page a bit and almost pops off.

GASP. I forgot about stickers and stamps! I mean stamps like rubber stamps, where you ink them on a pad and then make the image on paper. Sealing wax with a signet ring or something also looks cool, in the movies anyway.

I really like stickers. I have a bunch and I just can't figure out what to use them on. I used to put small ones in the margins of real paper letters I sent to people, or decorate a blank card with them and send it to someone. Maybe use a few to seal an envelope shut. Sometimes I've also cut a few out (still on the wax paper backing) and mailed them to my younger relatives inside a card as a little present. That's always a nice surprise to get when you're a kid.

Okay, but then what to do with the other 90%?

My mom is more into stamps than I am, but neither of us are into them enough to really know what to do with them, either. I love looking at the designs and examples but they never come out that crisp and clear when *I* use them, so... A friend of mine had a kind of unusual "theme" for her child's nursery, so she got a couple of stamps that matched it and uses them to decorate the TY notes she sends out in his name (he's 2). Actually she's not very crafty so I think the idea was better in theory than in execution for her, but I think it's still a cute idea, if it's something you're going to use at fairly regular intervals (every birthday and Christmas, for example).